Cruze Sportwagon next from Holden

GM Holden has ruled out local production of its upcoming Cruze Sportwagon, which will be the first of six new model releases over the next 12 months.

Fresh from launching its redesigned Colorado one-tonner this week, Holden will release the all-new Cruze wagon, plug-in Volt hatch and Colorado 7 off-roader in the final quarter of this year, following their local debuts at October’s Australian International Motor Show in Sydney.

While a long-awaited automatic version of the slow-selling Barina Spark is also due on stream in coming months, Holden’s new model onslaught will continue next year with the new Malibu medium sedan and all-new Trax compact SUV late in the second quarter of 2013.

Holden says its next major model release will add incremental sales to its popular Cruze small hatch and sedan range, which so far this year is Australia’s third best selling small car with 13,380 sales and a 13.9 per cent market share, ranking it second only to the Mazda3 and Toyota Corolla.

GM Holden Chairman and Managing Director Mike Devereux told motoring.com.au at this week’s Colorado launch that he thought the Cruze Sportwagon, which made its global debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March, was the most stylish of the three Cruze body derivatives – including the Australian-designed hatch.

“It’ll be a great a choice for folks who don’t want a large wagon and who really don’t have much choice for a small wagon here,” he said. “Frankly, I think it could also be the best looking of the trio of vehicles.”

Mr Devereux would not specify the number of sales the all-new Cruze wagon – which will go by the same Sportwagon name as the Commodore wagon – would steal from Holden’s larger homegrown Commodore Sportwagon.

However, refuting earlier speculation the new small wagon could be produced alongside the sedan and hatch at GM’s Elizabeth plant outside Adelaide, the Holden chief said: “There is no compelling reason to build the wagon here”.

Holden will not reveal its sales forecasts for the Cruze Sportwagon, which will be imported from Korea, but said a number of yet-to-be-revealed technologies, the dearth of small wagons available in Australia and its appeal to both families and fleet buyers would work in its favour.

“We feel it will fill out the Cruze portfolio from our sedan and hatch, which we build and will continue to build locally,” said Mr Devereux.

“There’s not a lot of competition in the small wagon segment. And it will have a quite a few new features which I don’t think we’ve talked about yet, so we’ll hold that for launch.”

Australia was once home to a range of small wagons, including the Astra, Corolla and Lancer, but the only small load-luggers currently available are Hyundai’s i30cw (from $22,090), Volkswagen’s Golf (from $26,990) and Peugeot’s 308 Touring (from $31,990) and 3008 (from $36,490).

The cheapest of those will disappear when stocks of Hyundai’s current i30 wagon disappear, following the Korean maker’s decision not to replace Australia’s existing model with a new-generation i30cw based on the redesigned i30 hatch that went on sale this month.

As we’ve reported, the Euro-styled Cruze Sportwagon – which will command a price premium over the $21,490-plus Cruze sedan and hatch – is 78mm longer overall than the sedan (and 230mm shorter than the Holden Sportwagon) at 4675mm.

Full specifications have not been revealed, but the Cruze wagon will come standard with roof-rails and a 500-litre cargo area that expands to 1500 litres with the rear seats folded, plus a similar powertrain line-up to existing Cruze models, meaning 1.8-litre petrol, 1.4-litre turbo-petrol and 2.0-litre turbo-diesel engines.

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